Day: August 8, 2011

Somewhat peripheral to our purview, but this is one of the basilicas one often is presented with in art history classes … from Rome Reports comes coverage of an interesting annual ritual:

It’s also noteworthy (if you’re relic-obsessed, as I am) as one of the places to find relics of St Jerome and the manger in which Jesus briefly sojourned… but there is a question that has been lingering in my skull for quite a while. Quite a few ‘travel’ websites say the basilica was built on the site of a temple of Cybele … does anyone know of a reliable source for this claim? In the context of this particular video, it’s interesting that showers of rose petals were also assorted with the cult of Cybele (see, e.g., this page from Kirk Summers’ essay in Cybele, Attis and related cults: essays in memory of M.J. Vermaseren … just another one of those ‘things that make you go hmmmm’ …

UPDATE (a few hours later and after reading the comments): further poking around suggests that some discovery was made in the 1990s which has been interpreted by F van Haeperen in various articles as indicating the existence of a sanctuary of Cybele on the site. The primary reference which seems to keep coming up is “Nouvelle proposition d’identification des vestiges découverts sous la basilique Sainte-Marie-Majeure de Rome : un sanctuaire de Cybèle”, Bulletin de l’Institut historique belge de Rome 67 (1997) pp. 65-98

The upshot of the above is that they’ve discovered remains of the docks of the port of Ratiatum (modern Reze), dating to the second half of the first century A.D.. They estimate they’ve found some 150 metres worth of the dock, so clearly this is a major find. There are now concerns on how they might conserve the site (and how much of it). We’ll include the image which goes with the article:

Iactetur bloggus:

Like this:

Tip o’ the pileus to Barnea Levi Selavan who sent this to me a while ago and it was lost (as often) among the myriad emails I wade through. Heddy Abramowitz is blogging the nine days of the destruction of Jerusalem. Scroll to the first post to go ‘day by day’:

Iactetur bloggus:

Like this:

Posts navigation

rogueclassicism: 1. n. an abnormal state or condition resulting from the forced migration from a lengthy Classical education into a profoundly unClassical world; 2. n. a blog about Ancient Greece and Rome compiled by one so afflicted (v. "rogueclassicist"); 3. n. a Classics blog.